A memorial in the form of artwork and text commemorate the personal war-time experiences of members of the 31st Battalion, the Kennedy Regiment.

These experiences are represented as text routed into seven timber baulks set into the concrete hardstand and surmounted by a multi element stainless steel arch. The soldiers whose experiences are so recorded are:

Darcy Meer Polygon Wood, World War One
James Gordon V.C. Syria 1941, World War Two
Geoffrey Hamlyn-Harris Kokoda 1942, World War Two
Private Ben Mutt Gona Mission 1942, World War Two
An officer Kokoda Trail 1942, World War Two
The Kokoda trail 1942, World War Two
Captain Rylands Ravenshoe 1943, World War Two

Location

Details

Monument Type:

Art

Monument Theme:

Conflict

Sub-Theme:

Multiple

Monument Designer:

Jill Chism

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:

2013

Front Inscription

Connections 2013

Jill Chism

This artwork honours the personal war-time experiences of the soldiers of the Kennedy Regiment and the 31st Battalions over their long history of military engagement from 1899 to the present day. The arch welcomes visitors into the precinct, while the embedded text panels invite our connection with the soldiers through their shared experiences of war.

Plaque :

Gordon has been lying there among the dead and dying, when one of his mates heard him say quite calmly, `Blast this, here goes`, and on his own initiative and with great daring he commenced to crawl towards that deadly machne-gun. He knew only too well what he was up against, the terrible risk he was facing and that death whould be his lot, too, if he failed.
Battle of Jezzine, Syria, 1941

Plaque :

On several occasions when I questioned him about the health of one or two of my men, he (Doc) told me it was a man`s mind not his body that was ailing... Beer is the best think the men can have right now. They've got to have some way of relaxing... Try to get them to make the best of things, to forget the past and refuse to think about the future.
Captain Rylands, Ravenshoe, 1943

Plaque :

We were thinking individually of those pals of ours; for the Owen Stanley Range still overshadowed us as a memory as well as a fact, an unpleasant monster conquered. Only those who shared their experience could have understood the extent of the price they had paid in the advance to victory.
Geoffrey Hamlyn-Harris, Kokoda recapture, 1942

Left Side Inscription

Plaque :

Many bearers were like Private Ben Mutt, who that day worked fearlessly and incessantly during the attack and personally extricated at least six badly wounded men under fire from forward positions without any regard for their personal safety.
Gona Mission, 1942

Plaque :

There were boys with their arms in slings, with bandaged heads, with blinded eyes, with emaciated faces... Other boys were bent and twisted with nervous injury and utterly broken down, boys who grinned jovially and whistled as they stumbled along.
Kokoda Trail, 1942

Right Side Inscription

Plaque :

When you fell you lost your tin hat, which rolled down a steep bank. You were sorry about losing that hat which had been issued to you before you left Australia - you had carried it through England, Egypy and Syria... But now you were too sick to bother about it - anyway it made your head ache and was heavy.
An office, Kokoda Trail, 1942

Plaque :

Morn finds me still on this ridge of Hell, where the boys are holding fast,
And the dead and dying where they fell, and the wounded crawling past.
Darcy Meer, Polygon Riodge, WWI